Cathedral Cars is a term coined by Marseille's dockworkers for vehicles crossing the Mediterranean to North Africa. Thomas Mailaender pays tribute to these human feats, their loads seemingly defying gravity: dreams tied to vehicles with ropes, sometimes unable to complete this unusual summer exodus. He photographs the cars from behind or in profile, removing their backgrounds to isolate them. Evoking folk art and sculpture, they also speak of journeys ahead, crossing territories, exodus and migration.
Designed as an oversized picture book, Cathedral Cars borrows the features of children's books, with thick board pages and a glossy coating. This distances the subject from its real context and presents it as a construction game.
Marc Augé's text, “Elsewhere, Hereabouts”, and a selection of the artist's found images appear in a twelve-page booklet fitted into the thickness of the cover.